Locals and visitors alike are leaving the sand and clubs to dip into the city's lively arts scene. From films to music to arts, it's all happening in South Florida.

It's Saturday night, and though a drizzle threatens, the lawn is jammed with children snoozing in strollers, couples sprawling on picnic blankets, teens taking a break from skateboarding. The star appears — not some retread boomer rocker but high-octane conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, affiliated with in London and San Francisco, and Miami's New World Symphony, a prestigious youth development academy.

Make that MTT (as he's widely known) by way of outdoor Wallcasts — a high-definition projection of the concert inside Miami Beach's Frank Gehry-designed New World Symphony academy and performance hall, with sound so clear that many who can easily afford tickets inside prefer to listen outside and soak up the "Sunday in the Park with George" vibe.

A smartly dressed couple in their 30s are among those perched on a wall, umbrella close at hand. "This is a unique experience in the world,'' Jorge Mejia says. He and his fiancée, Amanda, are frequent Wallcasts attendees, he says. "Miami as a city is really coming up.''

Given the international buzz that surrounded the New World Center's opening last year, it's no surprise that locals and visitors alike have come off the sand and out of the nightclubs for a dip into culture. But it's no quick swim.

Into theater? A dozen regional companies regularly take the stage, from the Summer Shorts festival of one-act plays each June to the latest production by "Brother/Sister Plays" trilogy playwright — and Miamian — Tarell Alvin McCraney.

Dance enthusiast? Edward Villella's Miami City Ballet, which played to sellout crowds during a recent Paris tour, is just one of the resident companies. (Although he's announced his retirement, that doesn't take place for two more years.)

Twenty-five years ago, the art savvy dubbed Miami "a cultural wasteland,'' recalls Lin Arison, widow of Carnival Cruise Lines founder Ted Arison. In the early 1980s, the Arisons launched a national recognition program, now known as Young Arts, designed to search out top high school artists in dance, music and visual arts. The New World Symphony, which provides two-year training fellowships for top graduates of U.S. music conservatories, grew out of that program.

One thing slowly led to another. After nearly two decades of effort, the city opened the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, where a single weekend last winter brought performances by Whoopi Goldberg, Brazil's Balé Folclórico da Bahia, Michael Bolton, Drumline Live, Joshua Bell and a free family fest. In the last 15 months, two additional performing arts centers have opened, one in the county's northern reaches in Aventura, the other in southern Miami-Dade.

"It's a really fun place,'' says Arison, who splits time among Miami, Tel Aviv and New York, where she serves on the board of trustees of the Museum of Modern Art. "It's just like New York. You can't do everything. You have to pick and choose.''

Says Nancy Novogrod, editor of Travel + Leisure magazine, "Miami's reputation has evolved from a tropical retreat to a very forward-thinking and exciting place to see art and to have a contemporary cultural experience.''

But it's Miami's visual arts scene that has become the city's sweet spot.

A new Herzog & De Meuron-designed home for the Miami Art Museum is under construction downtown — just one of the county's half-dozen major art museums. Four more museums feature exhibitions arranged by private collectors whose holdings rival those of many museums.

On any second Saturday of the month, the galleries in the downtown industrial warehouse district known as Wynwood have become so packed during open-house evenings that many venues have begun holding VIP openings the day before, and most galleries now open by 2 p.m. for collectors who want to avoid the crowds, says Susan Kelley of Kelley Roy Gallery. By late evening, the street is so thick with art-goers that you can scarcely drive.

Many credit the city's arts explosion to the influence of the renowned cultural showcase Art Basel. In truth, Miami has long been home to collectors, dancers, authors, musicians, artists and playwrights. But a decade ago, when Europe's top art fair brought a U.S. offshoot to Miami, the city's cultural side moved into the spotlight. Arts insiders now argue that the Art Basel Miami Beach offshoot — held the first week each December — has eclipsed its Swiss parent.

"In terms of the art, the fairs are very similar. Art Basel is the world's leading brand and draws the world's best galleries,'' says Miami art insider Marvin Ross Friedman, a frequent visitor at both the Miami and Basel fairs.

What differentiates the events is the overall atmosphere — Miami is more social — and an enormous number of side events scattered throughout the city.

Crowds of museum curators and gallerists start flooding into town just after Thanksgiving. The first of the so-called satellite fairs — unrelated shows featuring works typically less pricey than the modern masters offered at Art Basel Miami Beach — begin setting up around the city.

Private jets carrying top collectors from Europe, Latin America, Asia and across the U.S. arrive for nonstop openings at museums, galleries and private art spaces owned by local collectors but open to the public. Mobile projects — painted Mini Coopers, a horse-drawn Hummer adorned with art — pop up in the streets. Even the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden gets into the event, hosting an annual exhibition of outdoor-appropriate works that this year will include Will Ryman's flower sculptures.